'Can’t force a woman to continue pregnancy': SC allows minor to terminate 30-week pregnancy
&imwidth=600&imheight=450&format=webp&quality=medium "'Can’t force a woman to continue pregnancy': SC allows minor to terminate 30-week pregnancy")
Photograph: (AFP)
The Supreme Court has allowed the termination of a 30-week pregnancy of a 17-year-old girl, stating that courts cannot compel any woman, especially a minor, to carry a pregnancy to term.
The Supreme Court on Friday (Feb 06) ordered medical termination of a 30-week pregnancy of a 17-year-old girl while stating that it cannot compel a minor to continue a pregnancy. The apex court asked Mumbai's JJ hospital to undertake the medical termination of pregnancy of a minor while following all necessary protocol to ensure well-being.
A bench of Justices B V Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan noted that the girl had become pregnant while being in a relationship with a neighbourhood boy and sought to medically
terminate her pregnancy.
The bench underlined that the court had considered the fact that the right of the minor child continue the pregnancy was "illitimate" as she herself was minor. “what has to be considered in the instant case is the right of the minor child to continue a pregnancy which is ex facie illegitimate in as much as she is a minor and has to face this unfortunate situation of having the pregnancy owing to a relationship that she had.”
It further stated that the issue is not whether the relationship was consensual or whether it was the case of sexual assault "Ultimately, the fact is that the child to be is not legitimate and secondly, the mother to be of the child does not want to bear the child, it observed.
The bench also took note of the report of the medical board of the hospital stating no threat to the life of the child and the mother in case of the completion of pregnancy.
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"If the interest of the mother is to be taken note of, then her reproductive autonomy must be given sufficient emphasis. The court cannot compel any woman, much less a minor child, to complete her pregnancy if she is otherwise not intending to do so," the bench said.
The Supreme Court's decision is considered a significant ruling as the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) (Amendment) Act, 2021, allows abortion up to 20 weeks with the opinion of a single doctor. In certain special cases, including minors, rape survivors and women with disabilities, abortion is allowed between 20 and 24 weeks with the opinion of two doctors.
